First Custom Guitar Build

Cutting out via CNC. This was my first custom guitar build, so I actually bought the body from a guy on Facebook.

Body cut out and routed for pickups and controls. I had him rout it for the possibility of having a neck humbucker, but I ended up sticking with all single coils.

Grain on the back of the guitar

I unfortunately didn’t document the building process very well on this guitar. When I received the body, it was sanded to 80 grit. I sanded in stages to 400 grit, raised the grain twice, and did a “grain fill” on it. Woods like ash have a very porous grain that requires something to bring it to be level with the rest of it. I used joint compound (the stuff used on drywall in your house) and a darkish brown acrylic paint to grain fill. Then I sanded it back with 400 grit again, and finally sanded to a worn 600 grit. Then I started costing the guitar with Tung Oil. After 6 or so coats, I took 0000 steel wool and very lightly scrubbed the body before applying another coat of oil. Then I buffed the whole body with a very hard paste wax.